Fabric Row & my favorite fabric

Today, I’m sharing my favorite fabric in my stash.
I bought this fabric in Philadelphia last year, when I visited a friend who very patiently allowed me to drag her through each shop on Fabric Row.

Fabric Row has a fascinating history. It was once the Jewish section of the city, and was a bustling commercial area full of textile shops and even merchants selling their wares on pushcarts on the street. Can you imagine!? Although I’m sure it’s not nearly as exciting as it was back in the day, there’s still a great collection of shops there that offer a wide variety of fashion and home dec fabric, trims, buttons, and more.

I picked this up at Fabrics on 4th (if it has a website, I can’t find it), which was one of the last stops of the day. The owner was a bigger man, probably in his mid 40’s. A regular looking guy you probably wouldn’t pay much attention to if he and his buddies were talking basketball in the table next to you at a restaurant. You probably wouldn’t pick him out as a fabric geek. I doubt you’d guess he had his very own shop and a warehouse full of fabric that wouldn’t even fit in the shop, but he just couldn’t stop himself from acquiring. He was absolutely delightful. Of all the shops I visited that day, his had the most interesting variety, and the most enthusiastic owner. He spent about 30 minutes talking to my friend and I about his fabric collection. He was especially excited about a new metallic knit fabric with cut outs that looked like spikes when the fabric was pulled on the bias.

Zelda says “Hi”

I finally settled on the fabric above. The orbit lines were the first thing to catch my eye, and I knew it was some kind of geeky print. I was completely dumbfounded when I pulled out the bolt to see not just the planets I expected, but also UFO’s, the Enterprise, and this circular spacecraft I’m afraid I can’t place but feel like I should know. It’s also embossed with a “DV” logo I haven’t been able to identify. Any ideas??

It’s a 45″ silk, and I bought out the bolt that had just about 2 yards. I’ve been flipping through my patterns for several weeks, trying to figure out what to do with it. I really want to wear it, not have it sit in my fabric cabinet.

Then yesterday, I saw the April Pattern Review contest is about the 2013 Spring Pantone colors, and I realized I’ve got Monaco Blue, Tender Shoots, and Linen. So- I really need to make a decision on pattern now. McCalls 6599 is a strong contender, and I wore my Lemon Dress a couple of days ago, which reminded me Vogue 8469 might work. I keep thinking about Simplicity 3833 or the brand new Simplicity 1609 because it reminds me of something you might see on the original Star Trek, but I’m not sure those would work with the flowy fabric or my body type. Luckily, I still have some time to figure it out!

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8 thoughts on “Fabric Row & my favorite fabric”

I love the McCalls 6599. Both A and B are beautiful, and I would imagine both would look gorgeous in that fabric. B would give you a chance to bring in a coordinating fabric of the same weight (if you could find it).

The pattern requires 2.75 yards, so I would need to put a contrast in there in any event, but I think I can probably find a blue that will work.
I was thinking about doing B with short sleeves (or sleeveless), and either making the side panels and midriff band in the contrast or doing 3 different fabrics with the star trek fabric for the skirt.
Ugh… indecisive…